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Couple of Ride Tech Pro class cars, including the Factory Five replica 32 Ford monster and a beastly truck bodied racer
But they wouldn't let us in with our truck and enclosed trailer, crap. ALL of our autocross and track gear is loaded in there, and we had a giant cooler full of drinks, tools, chairs, sunscreen, rain gear, etc. We found the remote parking lot we were supposed to park the truck and trailer in, located outside of the track. Then we unloaded the car and tried to stash as much of our gear in the trunk and back seat of the Mustang, then drove in to the autocross lot way in the back of the infield paddock area.
It was being held in a smallish, fenced in parking lot I didn't even know existed at TMS, and I've raced inside there many times. We parked and went to walk the course. It was as I expected - SUPER TIGHT, with concrete barriers less than 10 feet from the edge of the course in several places. Knife fight in a phone booth. The lot and layout would give SCCA Safety Chiefs spasms and fits, but its normal for a Goodguys autocross. You are expected to drive in control, and if you don't, you are responsible for the damage. We had some rain overnight and it was seeping up between cracks in the asphalt, but I expected it to dry. As soon as we walked it Amy said "No way, YOU are driving all of the runs."
We were unsure how the event would run, so I asked some folks there that I knew. Turns out we knew a bunch of people who were either competing in the "All American Challenge" or that were just making runs in the cars that competed on Friday and Saturday. Yes, they let anyone that was paid up for the autocross from any of the 3 days make runs, which meant the Sunday competitors would be getting fewer runs. I was told the competition would be from about 9:30 or 10 am until 12:30, then they'd stop the competition but continue to take fun runs until about 2 pm. If Amy were to drive with our single entry, we'd have to split our runs, as the cars are run through in order, and make one run, then you park and wait your next turn. It seemed like the competition part was almost secondary, and I was really just hoping for an Optima invite - which doesn't necessarily go to the fastest cars at any Optima Qualifier, as we noticed last year.
Amy and I took a couple of walk-thrus and tried to memorize the somewhat complicated course, much of which was run twice in a given run, with 2 different "changes in course" portions that you had to remember to do in the right order. The video below might explain the course better. In this, my 2nd of 3 total runs, you can see how many times I shift from 2nd back to 1st (3 times per run), and how little traction I had with the year old Nitto NT-05 tires. I had planned on bringing the Mustang on a fresh set of 315/30/18 BFG Rivals, but my racing budget just didn't allow for it, and I kind of figured that winning wouldn't really matter much.
My first run was tough, as the width of the splitter barely fit through some sections of the course, and I kicked a cone with the splitter on one of the 1st gear turn-arounds. My second run (video above) still felt pretty rough to me, and was riddled with mistakes, but it was at least clean. The car felt so wide and there was ZERO traction leaving the line, plus the front end was pushing HORRIBLY in the higher speed (35 mph in 2nd gear) super tight right-hander that I had to navigate twice per run. Had to crawl around the course, super conservative, to keep from mowing down the tight bits.
Somehow that 2nd run put me in the lead, with a 71.82 sec time. That made the on rush of people stopping by step up even more, with tons of questions about the racey bits they could see. I kept reiterating that this was a street car, with A/C, interior, emissions, and tags. There were several of the muscle car "Pros" running that had mega prepped engines and even one re-bodied NASCAR chassis, but the Mustang looked more like a race car, even though it really wasn't all that fast on this crazy tight course.
No helmet? No problem. Concrete barriers? Fences a little close? Don't hit 'em.
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